"I think a very important
part of the productivity gains in the past decade were
associated with our open immigration policy…If we don't
allow, if we don't make provision for bright people,
whether they be graduate students or professional people
to come...that's a loss to our society and a loss to our
potential productivity."

Of course, this makes no
sense. The current policy of flooding the country with
illiterate, low-quality labor cannot help
productivity, which is a mathematical ratio of per
capita output

And why did not this
highly sophisticated observer of labor markets arrive
earlier at
Ed Rubenstein's view that current immigration
distorts the employment numbers and hurts native
born-workers—now
validated by Bear Stearns (scroll down – 4th
item)?

Alas, it appears that
Bernanke is just another of those romantics who
idolize immigration. At a Chicago Federal Reserve
Conference
last year, seemingly devoted to helping illegal
immigrant escape U.S. regulations, he said:

"all four of my
grandparents
[emphasis added]were foreign-born, coming
from Europe to the United States either just before or
directly after the First World War
last year a period, incidentally, that
represented a high-water mark of immigration to the
United States."

Bernanke knows a great deal about Central Banks. But
why should anyone expect him to know anything about
America?